Garbage Can-Related Harassment and Other Southern Orange County News
We go around the horn with stories from the Town of Chester, the Town of Woodbury, the Town of Blooming Grove, the Village of Monroe, the Village of Woodbury, and New York State’s 42nd Senate District
A lot is going on in Southern Orange County this week.
So, if you don't mind, we will post a recap today. Then, this week and next, we'll get into more detail.
This will give me time to chase up some sources and gather more information.
I have a hypothesis I'd like to prove. A few, actually.
Here's one I can share:
On Tuesday, the State Troopers and Town of Blooming Grove police were seen on the Clovewood property in South Blooming Grove.
I spoke with a representative for the Troopers about this. They stated there's an investigation in its early stages concerning swastikas that may have been spraypainted onto construction vehicles.
Now, as a Jew, I'm not blind to what's going on in the world today. The Israelis have gone and pissed off everyone on the planet by — instead of freeing all the hostages and killing the dipshit leaders of Hamas who organized the October 7th attacks — bombing 35,000 civilians indiscriminately and killing a lot of journalists.
Here at home, Trump is telling Jews how to be Jewish and fueling a second surge of antisemitism that could be as deadly as the first.
And then, on a local level, the Republican candidate for the New York State Senate, Dorey Houle, is running an antisemitic campaign that her fellow Republicans (Cardone, Scancarello) have thus far refused to condemn.
Not to be outdone, you have Mr. Joel Stern, Mr. Isaac Ekstein, Mr. Moche Halpern, and their hate group creating antisemitism with their baseless lawsuits against Washingtonville and its school district and their other criminal behavior.
The Town of Woodbury, although I think unintentionally, is also helping to cause antisemitism by giving preferential treatment from the police and the garbage company to only Satmar residents.
But all that said?
I'd bet almost anything that Mr. Stern and Mr. Ekstein are responsible for putting swastikas on their own vehicles. And I bet you can prove that, given the intense security around the Clovewood project site. That's to say nothing of all the expensive cameras they have.
So someone would have had to opt NOT to spray paint the readily accessible fencing, sneak onto the Clovewood site at night (it's heavily secured during the day), and then spray paint construction vehicles.
Is it possible? Yes.
But consider this:
Just eleven days ago Mr. Joel Stern, at the June 14th, 2024, Village of Blooming Grove Board of Trustees meeting, claimed the Town police were understaffed and under-resourced. He was laughed out of the building by the people in attendance. Despite this, and since Mayor Kalaj and the Board are puppets of Mr. Stern and Mr. Ekstein, they approved looking into the creation of a Public Safety (re: police) unit to be created for the village.
The Town of Blooming Grove police then put out a statement, published first by The Monroe Gazette, that illustrated why Mr. Stern's claims were false.
This statement found its way onto Ivelt.com, where Mr. Stern and associates are known to lurk. We can confirm this because, as previously reported, there’s one specific person on there who posts both The Blooming Grove Report and the latest newsletter from Mr. Stern's organization, United Jewish Community of Blooming Grove.
Seeing the chief embarrass him publicly, perhaps Mr. Stern concocted a hair-brained public relations scheme to drum up support for his public safety division.
This is a hypothesis. It is not fact.
But the timing of the incident, just eleven days after Mr. Stern suggested the Town of Blooming Grove police department wasn't up to serving the community's needs, is definitely suspect.
Town of Chester
I have a larger story forthcoming concerning the shady activities of former Town Supervisor Robert Valentine.
At this point, though, it's safe to say that if you’ve heard about Valentine doing something shady over the last four years he’s spent in office, there’s a kernel of truth to most of it.
I want to briefly discuss the New York State Department of Transportation’s proposal to close Exit 127 (Sugarloaf) on Route 17.
The Town of Chester is currently preparing a resolution asking the DOT to reconsider this closure. Senator Skoufis and Assemblyman Maher are also joining them in this effort.
In a statement to The Monroe Gazette, Assemblyman Maher said:
Our office works with NYS DOT on road closures due to infrastructure projects regularly. We speak directly to our DOT Hudson Valley Region 8 representatives with whom we have a strong working relationship. We don't always agree on DOT road closure plans or the timeframe in which they are enacted. In this case we are working with them to discuss different solutions. Our ongoing conversations, working with Supervisor Holdridge and Senator Skoufis including this letter and town resolution, are meant to show our united front in asking DOT to look at possible alternative routes while this project is completed.
The closure is not guaranteed to happen and is being explored as part of the larger Route 17 mobility project that The Monroe Gazette previously covered here.
Anything involving Route 17 and whether or not we get the third lane is at least 3 to 5 years away from happening.
Town of Woodbury
A police report was filed against Woodbury employee Clara Rivera yesterday. Clara is the town's point person for garbage pickup and disposal management. You may remember Clara was the one who claimed events in Israel were the reason why some residents received an extra garbage pickup for Passover.
Whether or not Mrs. Rivera and the Town of Woodbury are aware that even Israel doesn’t allow for preferential treatment of our Haredi friends is unclear. Here’s the latest example of that:
Here’s the short version of the story. Supervisor Luciani did not respond to emails sent on this matter. A call placed last night was also not returned. If I hear back I’ll let you know.
Mrs. Rivera was seen outside the home by someone who complained to the town about extra garbage pickups and County Waste Management intermingling recyclables and garbage despite their agreement not to do that.
In the video provided to The Monroe Gazette, Mrs. Rivera — in the white SUV — can be seen recording the person’s home and garbage cans while speaking to someone. It’s not clear if she was talking with the Supervisor or not.
To be clear: It’s unknown if Mrs. Rivera had ill intent. I doubt it and am not stating she was there to cause trouble.
But her unannounced presence outside the home was enough to disturb the people there. If the Town intended to monitor the garbage pickup to ensure it complied with the new contract, they probably should have announced to the residents that they would be in the area that morning.
It is clear that Mrs. Rivera followed the garbage truck on one street in Highland Lake Estates, seemingly to ensure that it picked up the garbage as County Waste Management agreed to.
But.
Mrs. Rivera was unaware of another camera that captured a garbage truck (above) on a neighboring street around the same time. She was not following this truck, which was picking up garbage and recyclables, loading them into the same bay, and intermingling them. (Recycling cans can be seen above with the green lid.)
This recording adds more fuel to the garbage questions raised by residents at the recent Town Board meeting.
Town Of Monroe / NYS Senate 42nd District
Guess who won last night’s primary for the Conservative Ballot line?
It wasn’t Monroe Town Councilwoman Dorey Houle.
It was Tim Mitts. In a statement to The Monroe Gazette, Mr. Mitts said:
I want to first start by saying it has been a very competitive race with my opponent, Dorey Houle. I'm very excited that my constituents have seen my efforts and believe in me. It is the most I can ask for in anybody that trusts me. Now it is time to take the fight to the general election. It is time to turn our state around and make me your next Senator for the New York State 42nd District. I will not let my constituents down and I will fight the fight. I will walk the walk. I will talk the talk. I look forward to the general November election.
This means we have a three-person race for the New York State Senate seat this fall.
According to Politico, the Communications Workers of America District 1’s superpac, New Yorkers Together, spent $8,000 on mailers for Mr. Mitts.
Of the 4,000 registered Conservative Party members in NYS District 42, 426 voted for Mitts, and 386 voted for Houle.
New Yorkers Together and The Carpenters Fund for Growth and Progress were looking to help Skoufis out this Fall by getting Mitts on the ballot.
I know I’ve said this already, but you should hold your nose and vote for Skoufis. He has done many good things for the community, but on the significant issues, he’s done nothing but take a giant dump on Orange County’s rug.
For that reason, someone should primary him in 2025. Maybe one of you reading this will be the person to do it.
Town of Blooming Grove
I spoke with Supervisor Jeroloman concerning Mr. Stern’s assertion that South Blooming Grove could use its own “police force.” Stern is calling it public safety to avoid the regulatory loopholes he would need to jump through if he called it police. But they’re basically police.
When asked about Mr. Stern’s claims that the Town of Blooming Grove police were not equipped to handle the needs of South Blooming Grove’s community, he said in a statement to The Monroe Gazette:
To be clear, the average Police Department in the area is approximately one (1) Police Officer per 1,200 residents served by the Police Department.
In the Town of Ramapo I was informed that their Police Department has approximately 126 Police Officers for a population of approximately 151,000 residents.
The Town of Blooming Grove (in the 2020 census) showed a population of 18,811 who live outside of the two Villages. The Village of South Blooming Grove (in the 2020 census) was approximately 3,860 residents. As the Town of Blooming Grove Police Department does not provide police services to the Village of Washingtonville I have not included their population.
If you use the ratio that is used in the area of 1 Sworn Police Officer to 1,200 residents the Town of Ramapo would need 125 Sworn Officers to properly cover the Town of Ramapo, they have 126 Sworn Officers. With that said, the Town of Blooming Grove, using the same formula would need 18 Sworn Officers to properly cover the Town of Blooming Grove and the Village of South Blooming Grove and their population.
The Town of Blooming Grove has 19 Fulltime Sworn Officers and 4 Part-time Sworn Officers, that is 23 Sworn Officers who are employed by the Blooming Grove Police Department. Twenty Three (23) Sworn Officer have and continue to serves our community with distinction, and pride. To say anything other than that is a disservice to our Police Department and our Town.
The representations that were mentioned in your email are false and misleading and are designed to introduce mistrust and misinformation into our community. Someone who creates such a narrative only serves themselves and for their benefit and should not be trusted.
I sent some follow-up questions to both Stern and Chief Wakeham. I’ll let you know if they are answered. South Blooming Grove Mayor, George Kalaj, claims that the Chief will be at am upcoming SBG Village Board meeting. We’ll see.
Village of Monroe
The Monroe Gazette previously covered the last Village meeting, where a wild 99th District Assembly candidate, Tom Lapolla, appeared.
Tom, if you recall, wants the government to tell women what they can and can’t do with their bodies but not tell men how to mow their lawns.
A good chunk of this week’s meeting was spent discussing the Village’s admirable efforts concerning code enforcement.
Unlike the Town of Monroe, the Village of Monroe has heard resident complaints and has taken action.
But there’s a new problem: How can all the new code enforcement cases be processed without creating additional work for the village’s busy court system?
The Village Board is still working hard to come up with a plan. In a statement to The Monroe Gazette, Mayor Neil Dwyer said:
We are working through the process of how the violations, both singular events and multiple violations within a certain period of time are addressed in court and by the Village Board of Trustees.
The Village Board is clear that it is committed to code compliance and to address violators appropriately. The language of the section in the code is what we are reviewing.
I expect it to be completed shortly with the law as it stands or some modifications to the process.
At the end of the day we want compliance and continued cooperation with property owners.
We have hired three new persons for our code enforcement, enhancing our ability to be address property maintenance issues in a timely manner. We also have the manpower to manage the rental property compliance, the commercial fire inspections and keep the department current on all properties sold and purchased, collaborate with our water dept and police dept when appropriate and necessary.
I am confident that our Board is very supportive of this work in legislating and giving all the tools necessary to do the work.
And finally …
The Village of Woodbury
No. Mr. Freiband has still not apologized to Mr. Gerver.
He also did not respond to multiple requests for comment concerning his behavior at the previous Village Board meeting. Both village residents and members of the Village Board took a lot of time, all justified, to criticize Mr. Freiband’s actions during this week’s Tuesday meeting.
Mr. Freiband made another blunder at this week’s meeting, but I’m waiting to get the math behind that blunder from the appropriate sources to lay it out for you.
So, more on that soon.
But if you’re curious, I’m referring to his suggestion that the Village not purchase new fire trucks from its capital fund but instead issue a bond for them.
An economic policy that would have the same impact on the local economy as Trump’s plan to do away with income taxes: It’d be a fucking disaster.
More importantly, based on the comments I’m getting, is the news involving the Senior Housing project.
The Village Board approved this project's zoning change, but there were plenty of conditions. These included provisions to ensure that undeveloped land remains undeveloped. The project will not break ground any time soon, so there’s still a lot of time for the community to be involved with the process as it returns to the Planning Board.
As you all know, Woodbury has a building moratorium because there isn’t enough water to support any further development. Orange County Sewer District 1 is also out of capacity for Woodbury and over capacity for the Town of Monroe.
So, it’ll be a while before anything happens with this project or any project—unless you’re South Blooming Grove, in which case the Village Board is actively putting its residents in danger every day by continuing to build despite not having enough water for its current residents.
There’s more—there’s always more. But these are some highlights. I’ll revisit them soon with more information as these stories develop.
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